"It is my understanding that you
have killed the one that brought your vampire curse to our world, and
many of his followers as well. But that there are likely others that
remain that are vampire-cursed, and they are still able to spread
that curse?" Darvil said to the group of Terrans and Taigans
gathered for a post-sewers debriefing session.

"And yet despite it all, we can
still do much good with what we learn from them. Provided that our
people are properly guided by the Vizcars," Kelene said.

"We do not need to air the
College's internal politics before outsiders," Darvil chided as
he waved his hand toward the group that included SG-1 as well as
Salim and Leale.

In other words, don't argue in front of
the kids, Jack thought.

"Maybe it is good for them to hear
what a mess they've introduced into our world," Malek said.

"I think that they are well aware
of that problem. And now is the time when we will tell them what our
judgment of how they will aid Taiga in addressing the problem they
caused," Darvil said, leaving Jack with a mental picture of Air
Commandos crawling through every sewer on the planet in search of the
newly fanged.

"How can we help you?" he
said, managing not to sigh.

"Once more, we are requesting
technical assistance from your people in training ours how to contain
the vampire curse. Let us make it clear that we do not wish for you
to send more troops to Taiga to search for the cursed, and that we
will take such actions as indications that you do not respect our
sovereignty. Before the Vizcars united Taiga, it was common for one
city to use another city's misfortune as an excuse for an invasion.
We will not allow our planet to be treated as such," Darvil
said.

"And it is also the belief of the
College that it is best to have a Taigan solution to what has become
a Taigan problem," Malek said.

"We'll do our best to provide you
with the technical assistance," Jack said, doing his best to
keep his face blank. With all the other active hot spots Stargate
Command currently had to manage, he was glad that he wasn't looking
at a permanent garrison on a planet that hadn't had Goa'uld activity
anytime in the recent past.

There was a discussion of just what
technical assistance was wanted. In Jack's view, the Taigan's
requests were reasonable, and he informed them that, while he had to
clear it with his own superiors, he expected there to be no problems
with their request.

"Um, sirs and ma'ams? Can I
request one more thing here?" Harris spoke up from where he had
been whispering with Leale.

"Depends what it is, Harris."
Jack said.

"While I know a lot about vampires
and Slayers, there are people back on Earth that know far more about
the subject than I do. When things get settled here a little bit, I'd
like permission for Leale and Salim to come to Earth for a couple of
weeks to train and learn from the guy that taught me about the things
that growl in the night."

"We'll see what we can do,
Harris," Jack said. The negotiation had been going too well
until that point. So of course, he was now going to find himself
having to justify entangling a civilian in SG's very classified
projects.

"You know, Harris, I wouldn't have
thought that shopping for fabric was considered to be an essential
part of the training of a Slayer," Jack said as he circled
around the commercial district of the small English village on a
futile quest for a parking space.

"Sir, I can verify that shopping
in general is an essential Slayer activity. Leale's really not that
different in that regard. The three hours I once spent with, um, with
another Slayer looking for the perfect pair of shoes to go with her
little blue skirt were actually worse than the five hours in the
previous fabric store." Jack noticed that for all that Xander
had given him the real identity of the person also known as Robert
Ripper, he still was careful not to directly identify the name of the
current Slayer of Earth.

"Okay, I can understand the four
hours in the camping store. The flashlights she got there will work
far better for night work than the lanterns the Taigans have on their
own place, and she got enough batteries for a small town to stay lit
for a week after a hurricane. And a lot of what else she got there
will have uses in the field as well. But the fabric stores?"

"Leale felt like current Earth
fashion was not appropriate for daily life on Taiga, and she wants to
make her own clothing that will be appropriate to slay in. That, and
the way she seemed so happy to see all the fabric colors that Taiga
just doesn't have the technology to mass produce, and considering
what her life is going to be like from here on out, I want to see her
to be happy," Xander said.

"There's something in the way you
say that which makes me think there's more to the Slayer story than
what you've said so far," Jack said.

"Sir, from the records I've seen,
the average age of death for Slayers is sixteen years, seven months.
Granted, Leale only has to deal with vampires, and not the other
nasty Big Bads you find on Earth, but she's going to spend the rest
of her life with a giant bull's eye pained on her back right on top
of that purple and green orchid and palm tree print fabric she got
yesterday."

"Shit."

"No shit, sir. I wish it was
different for the Slayers because it sucks to be them. But I don't
know how to change the system without screwing a bunch of stuff up
even worse, so I just do what I can to make it good for however long
they've got, including trying to make the time they have as long as
possible."

"When the General gets the credit
card bills, I'll tell him to have his accountants credit Leale's
shopping spree to the morale activities for our allies account. Then
they'll turn around and hide it in the base plumbing supplies
expenses account."

"So that's how the Air Force ends
up buying five hundred toilet seats," Harris said. The kid
really was a lot sharper than he normally let on.

"Honest truth. But that's
classified information, and if you tell anyone else, I'll have to
shoot you."

"Understood, sir," Harris
said as he chuckled.

Jack circled the block one more time,
and this time was rewarded not with a parking spot, but the sight of
Leale, Salim, Carter, and their RAF liason Captain Miller standing
outside of the store. Carter waved down Jack's SUV. She had to, since
the other three were loaded down with yet more shopping bags.

"How'd the hunt go?" Harris
asked as he slid out of the passenger side in order to help the
others load the back of the SUV.

"Very successful," Leale
said. To Jack, she sounded happy at her latest haul.

"How's our time schedule, Captain
Miller?" he asked after they all settled into the truck.

"Unless there's an accident, we
shouldn't have a problem getting to our appointment on time,"
Miller said from the shotgun seat as he pulled a small road atlas out
of his coat pocket. For this trip, they had gone with civilian
clothing.

Following Miller's directions, Jack
drove out of the village and past a series of small farms perched on
rolling hills. It was pretty enough to be something right out of a
painting. He turned north at another area labeled as a village, but
small enough to contain only a gas station, pub, small school, and a
scattering of houses. He then went east until he found the
countryside home of one Rupert Giles, AKA Robert Ripper.

"I'm gonna have to let the crowd
back home know that Giles really does live in a house that looks like
a hobbit hole," Harris said.

"What's a hobbit?" Salim
said.

"A fictional character that as far
as I know, really is fictional. I'll have to send copies of the first
four or five books back with you along with everything else,"
Harris replied as Jack turned down a short gravel driveway.

They all piled out of the SUV, and as
they walked toward the neat English cottage, a fiftyish thin man with
glasses opened the door.

Hello there," Rupert Giles said.

"Hey Giles, I brought friends over
for tea," Harris said, smiling as he gave his friend a pat on
the back.

"I've gotta be me," Harris
said. Giles was clearly one of Harris' People. For all the
information that Harris had been willing to pass along to SGC on the
supernatural, he had always held a little of himself back during the
process. With Giles, Harris' normal reserve was totally gone.

"And I'm not sure if that's a
blessing or a curse," Giles said as he lead the group into a
surprisingly large living room, or lounge as Captain Miller would
have described it.

They quickly worked through
introductions, food and drink was offered and politely accepted, and
then Captain Miller opened up his briefcase. It was time to have a
serious talk with a man that Jack's own government had had a few
blacked out interactions with even as MI-5 swore that their own
blacked out records showed that Giles was a hero in service to the
Queen of England.

"Okay, Mr. Giles, I'm told you've
done this before, and you know how this all works. What I have here
is a standard one day contract for a civilian contractor working with
the RAF. If you will sign here, you will be paid for that one day,
regardless of whether or not you choose to aid the RAF in this
endeavor."

Giles quickly but thoroughly looked
over the brief contract, and the page that came after the contract.
He signed both of them before passing them back to Miller.

"Now if you ladies and gentlemen
would please tell me what is serous enough to not only send Xander to
England to look for me, but also to have me sign papers making it
clear that what's discussed here is covered under Section 2 of the
Official Secrets Act?"

Jack glanced at Harris, giving him an
indication it was time for him to start talking. He was the one who
had enough of a background with both SGC and the supernatural to have
it make sense for an outsider.

"The summary version of it all is
that a couple years ago, the Air Force stumbled across the technology
that let them create portals between worlds. And they discovered that
there were sometimes other humans that had been sent to those worlds
centuries ago using the same portal technology. And there are more
than just other humans out there, including some being that would
probably rate as Big Bads on the old Sunnyhell Scale of Doom and
Destruction. So the government has spent the last couple years
fighting those Big Bads the best they could, and for the most part,
they've been doing a pretty good job of it. I mean, you wouldn't
believe they're part of the same armed forces as the Army, what with
how badly the Army fucked up in Sunnydale in all, and darn I'm really
getting into that whole inter-services rivalry aren't I?

Anyways, they were cruising along,
holding down the fort, and making the universe safe for truth,
justice, and all that. But then a mistake happened, and a vampire got
through the portal when it shouldn't have. End result, the Powers
started drafting people to keep the vampires from overrunning that
world."

Giles' eyes flicked around the group in
the living room.

"Since you're the one telling the
story, I assume you're one of the ones who has been unfortunate
enough to draw the Powers' attention? And the other two would be
Leale and Salim?"

"I told you he was good,"
Harris said as he pulled a small cloth out of his pocket and passed
it to Giles, who reflexively pulled off his glasses and wiped the
dust off of them.

"The house wards picked them up as
they went through the door. And I must say it isn't often that they
register a visitor as human but not of this earth," Giles said,
putting his glasses back on.

Jack found himself wondering if they
could invest in that sort of protective system for the Gate. It would
have solved several problems for them over the years.

"Now that Captain Miller has done
the Sicilian blood oath thing, or what ever you European people do, I
can formally introduce to you Leal, the Slayer of the planet Taiga.
Apparently the Powers have decided that the rule is one Slayer per
planet infested with vampires. And Cantor Salim has agreed to start
up as a Watchers organization on Taiga. I figured that you were the
person to tell him how to do that since you're the one person with
the Earth group that treats the Slayer like a person and not some
sort of damn wind-up toy for the old guys to use for whatever."

"Xander said you knew even more
about vampires than he did, even though he's been great so far with
helping us figure out what's going on," Leale said, offering a
shy smile to Giles.

"I try my best, as we all have in
the fight against darkness. And I feel like Xander was doing more
than well enough on his own when he entered the Air Force. Was there
some more specific reason you came here?"

"To start with, the Taigans need
to have a spell or a device, or a magic whatsit so that if something
happens to Leale, they can more easily figure out if another Slayer
has been called to follow her," Xander began.

After topping of everyone's mugs of
tea, Giles walked over toward a bookshelf in the hallway between the
living room and the kitchen. He pulled out a volume that had
something in Latin written on the spine, and began to flip through
the pages.

"I'll take that as a no in this
context then," Giles said. "So we'll probably be needing a
device that anyone can use."

Jack watched the scene unfold around
him as Giles, Harris, and the Taigans began to discuss the best way
to handle the position of Slayer of Taiga and everything it involved.
As he did, he wished Daniel had been able to make the trip to
England. For all that there were a thousand different cultures out
there on other planets, he knew that the other man would love to see
what was starting to play out only a few thousand miles from Colorado
as Giles mumbled a series of phrases that made a triangular stone
point toward Leale.

Finis.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.